OVER THE NEXT MONTH, and for your life long if you wish, you will be writing poems.  For a hundred years or more now, there have been no set rules for this. Poetry has long been free of the rules that once defined it. 

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT I, PERSONALLY, LOOK FOR IN A POEM, READ MY ESSAY

WHAT I LIKE IN A POEM

While it is my job to help you write your own best work, clearly I do like some styles better than others. Here's a link to many more of my own poems, which are, after all, what I like!

Dr. Axelrod's Selected Poems

For more on how I comment on your poems and some examples of student work together with comments and suggested revisions, click on:  

COMMENTS AND REVISIONS

HOW TO WRITE AND REVISE POEMS

FOR A SAMPLE OF HOW TO WORKSHOP POEMS CLICK HERE: 

 SAMPLE POETRY WORKSHOP COMMENTS

Nonetheless, every poet, indeed every writer, owes something to his or her literary history. As surely as good readers make good writers, you should use your time as a student to become familiar with forms of poetry and the great variety of styles now employed.

2 to 4 poems in the most popular contemporary style: imagistic poetry. (For a definition of "imagistic" poetry: http://www.answers.com/imagistic&r=67 )

2 to 4 poems in "imitation" of poems in my book, Deciduous Poems.  I am also encouraging you to try imitating poems of a contemporary author whose work you have studied this term. (For a good sample of contemporary poetry try any living poet laureate at http://www.loc.gov/poetry/laureate.html  

CLICK HERE FOR YOUR LINK ON:  WRITING YOUR IMITATION

2 to 4 poems in a style "of your own."

2 to 4 poems in set form: set meter/rhyme such as sonnet (iambic pentameter); Haiku or Tanka.

Together that is a total of at least TEN PAGES of new poems.

In addition, you are required to:

A. Send one of your poems to two of your fellow students for a critique.

B. Critique and assist in the revision of at least two poems that will be sent to you by each of two other of your fellow workshop students.

Don't forget, as well, that you can earn extra credit if you attend and report on "literary events" during your course. What better way to fulfill your requirement than to go to one of the many nearby poetry readings?